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FOLLOWUP: Man arrested at Junction home charged in SeaTac killing

(WSB photo: KCSO officers outside house where murder suspect was arrested last Thursday)

Charges are now filed against 39-year-old Aaron Parypa, arrested by SWAT-geared King County Sheriff’s Officers last week at his Junction-area home in connection with a shooting death near Sea-Tac Airport. Parypa is charged with second-degree murder and first-degree assault, for the death of Andrae Medina-Wong and the attempted shooting of a second man in what detectives say started as an attempted marijuana sale. Parypa remains jailed in lieu of $1 million bail, requested by prosecutors because while he has no criminal history, they allege he “shot at both victims from a moving car in broad daylight during rush-hour traffic … (firing) at least seven times with a high-powered assault rifle.” The shooting made regional news on October 29th because of its proximity to the airport; Medina-Wong was found dead by a car in an intersection just north of Sea-Tac. Another man found hiding in the woods nearby turned out to have been with him. According to court documents, that man told police he and Medina-Wong had used Craigslist to try to buy marijuana, and had obtained – possibly stolen – some, in a glass mason jar, from a prospective seller they arranged to meet in the shopping-center parking lot on the northeast corner of 1st and 160th in Burien.

A vehicle believed to belong to that person subsequently pursued them, the survivor told investigators, and caught up with them at the intersection near Sea-Tac, where he saw a gun barrel pointing at them from the other vehicle. He got out of the car, carrying the mason jar of marijuana, and started running, at which time he heard gunshots. Medina-Wong was later found to have been hit by .223-caliber bullets in the head and heart. The other man was not hit.

The documents tell a detailed story of how detectives identified Parypa as the suspect, including phone and Internet records:

It started with video from a Metro bus and businesses near the intersection where the shooting happened, and continued with cellphone and Internet records obtained via search warrants. Those records included dozens of marijuana-related Craisglist searches by Medina-Wong. A detective discovered: “… of the 26 specific ads that Medina-Wong viewed on October 29th, only a single advertisement had since been marked ‘This posting has been deleted by its author'” – an ad “titled ‘Connoisseur Courier’ and … listed as being in the Seattle geographical area.” It had been viewed less than an hour and a half after Medina-Wong was killed; it was deleted four minutes after the shooting.

On November 16th – almost three weeks after the shooting – detectives received information about the person who had posted the “Connoisseur Courier” ad; that included a phone number that an online search revealed Aaron Parypa had been associated with since at least 2013. Further corroborating evidence, according to the court documents, included the ad’s message that what was for sale was marijuana “stored in glass.” Driver’s license and vehicle records gave detectives further information matching descriptions for Parypa and a vehicle he owned to descriptive information offered by the man who had been with the victim. On November 20th, yet another search warrant brought in information about the IP address for the Craigslist ad, which matched a Comcast account in Parypa’s name, at his Junction-area house. And a week later, they obtained AT&T records showing the phone number had been his since 2007. While his account showed a report on November 3rd that he had lost his phone on October 29th – the day of the shooting – detectives wrote that seemed to be a false report, as call records show it was used since October 29th for many of the same numbers called before that date, including calls to at least one family member. Other records place his phone in the area of the shooting, at the time of the shooting, according to the charging documents. And they found records tying the victim’s phone to a phone number that had called Parypa’s phone the day of the shooting.

Moving ahead to the arrest last Thursday (December 3rd), the documents say Parypa was taken into custody as he returned to his house. Investigators say he agreed to be interviewed, so they took him downtown. When they first made contact with him, they asked, “Are you here to talk to me about my stolen car?”, referring to what court documents describe as “a 1986 Toyota pickup that he owns and that was stolen from his residence on or about October 14th, 2015).”

(Editor’s note: We realized while reading the documents as we wrote this story, that we received and published a West Seattle Crime Watch reader report in mid-October from “Aaron,” reporting the theft of a 1986 Toyota pickup.)

Back to the court documents: Detectives say Parypa “commented on how he had been the victim of multiple thefts over the past several years, stating ‘people who steal make me angry’. This was a recurring theme of the conversation during the approximately 15-minute drive.” During the subsequent interview, after he was read his Miranda rights, detectives say he told them he buys and sells automobiles to make a living, “finding and selling many of these vehicles via (Craigslist).” Later in the conversation, according to court documents, he “eventually admitted to having been involved in selling medical marijuana in the past via (Craigslist) and that he was experienced in growing and selling marijuana. He also stated, when asked, that ‘glass jars’ were the best method of storage after having harvested a plant, and described using mason jars,” some of which they say they found in his home during a search on the day of the arrest. He is reported to have told them he stopped selling marijuana “about one month ago” …

… because he needed a ‘change in his life,’ that he had been ‘running into strange people,’ that ‘it became too much to deal with’ and ‘there were too many crazy people, thieves, running around.’

But they say he denied ever having been the victim of theft or robbery via a CL ad. And when they started asking him about the lost/not-lost phone, that’s when, the documents say, he “declined to be interviewed further.” He remains in the King County Jail, with arraignment set for December 17th.

30 Replies to "FOLLOWUP: Man arrested at Junction home charged in SeaTac killing"

ya know…legal mj may cost more, but, hey, it’s legal, and it won’t get you killed. And, wow, just stealing it? Not cool, since, obviously, you don’t know who you’re dealing with. And Craigslist? Not a chance….

Unfortunately this story is one sided – I’d love to hear what really happened. If you rob someone in their home its considered self defense- I imagine that there is much more to this story than we are being told.

At this point in a case, what’s available is the allegations from police, detectives, prosecutors. We write very clearly that this is what they allege happened – not stating, this is what happened. Often criminal-justice agencies just make declarations that x or y happened, and some news publications parrot those without qualifiers. We don’t. The court documents are publicly available from Electronic Court Records-Online.
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This was way too long of a narrative for me to totally transcribe, and it came in a format that did not allow cutting and pasting. But here is specifically how the documents allege the actual shooting went down. The man who was with the victim said Medina-Wong observed that “they were being ‘followed’ or ‘chased and … took several turns in the Burien area trying to lose the vehicle that was following them.” They wound up at S. 154th/24th Ave. S. That’s where, the other man says, an SUV pulled up alongside them with a “big ass barrel” of a gun visible pointing at them from inside. That’s when the other man says he got out of the car and ran, hearing shots behind him. The documents continue “An examination of the Mercedes revealed 7 rounds from a high-caliber rifle consistent with a .223 had struck the vehicle. One round entered at the center of the trunk hatch, a second round entered the rear driver side fender, a third and fourth round struck the rear driver door, a fifth round struck the driver door window, a sixth round struck the windshield at the pillar, and a seventh round struck the hood above the front driver headlight. … The trajectory of the shots was consistent with a firing pattern from the trunk of the Mercedes to hood, at a downward angle. This was consistent with (the other man’s) statement of the suspect SUV pulling alongside the driver side of his car, approaching from the back.”

Fairly certain there is more to this story…neither of these guys were/are upstanding citizens, nor do I believe them dumb enough to score drugs off Craig’s List! They have a much higher level street smarts than that…

Again, this is the only side of the story that is available, and there’s a lot of it. 13 pages to be specific. Since you bring up the question about the alleged CL purchase attempt, page 5 says the man who survived told investigators that he and the victim “had tried to arrange meetings with at least two different persons in the Bellevue area on the afternoon of October 29th, prior to the shooting, with the intent of getting marijuana from them. (He) stated that Medina-Wong had located these sellers via advertisements posted on (Craigslist) and eventually admitted he had exchanged text messages with two of these individuals (that afternoon) while trying to arrange the actual meeting place and amount of marijuana he and Medina-Wong wanted to obtain. These text messages were later found on (his) phone and corroborated his statement. (He) further admitted that he and Medina-Wong had not obtained any marijuana during either of these two attempts in Bellevue. Followup interviews with these individuals revealed that each did not finish transactions with Medina-Wong and (other man) because each suspected that (they) were going to steal their marijuana and not pay for it. After leaving the Bellevue area (they) drove toward Burien. Medina-Wong told him he had arranged to meet with another marijuana seller in the Burien area …” And that, allegedly, was the suspect.

mok4315, you’re saying the person arrested posts under that name? How do you know that? I’ve seen a fair amount of comments from him as well.
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edit: oops, saw that lower part of the story now – WOW that is crazy.

@AT, that’s on page 4: “A semi-automatic 9mm handgun, which did not appear to have been fired, was found near his body and was subsequently determined to belong to Medina-Wong.” The 2009 Mercedes with the bullet holes was registered to the man who had been with him. Next to Medina-Wong’s body, the document says, “A single .223-caliber fired cartridge was found in the middle of South 154th Street.” Next line: “Just west of the intersection, a glass mason jar containing marijuana was found in the parking lot of the ‘Flying Fish’ food company.” When they found the surviving man nearby, he told them he had abandoned it there after running from his car. Aerial video of KCSO finding him in the woods nearby is on the KCSO Air Support YouTube channel – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldcItrSSMPQ – I recall watching/listening to some of the coverage that day (didn’t know of the eventual alleged WS connection, but things that happen not far from WS/WS, in all directions, often come to our attention anyway) and they didn’t know at the time whether the person seen running was a suspect or not. – TR

This is all quite tragic, particularly since the WSB story about the truck theft indicates Aaron has not long for this world, with a terminal disease and limb amputation in store, prior to these events.

“We write very clearly that this is what they allege happened – not stating, this is what happened. Often criminal-justice agencies just make declarations that x or y happened, and some news publications parrot those without qualifiers. We don’t. ”

It’s appreciated. That narrative is pretty wild and there’s lots of speculation in it. Unfortunately a lot of the TV news stations will repeat this stuff as if it were cold hard facts with no context or qualification, leaving it pretty hard for people to understand that they are looking at just one side of the story.

@luvws – It is only self-defense if you have reason to fear for your life. If you shoot the person when they are running out of your house, it is not self-defense. Tempting though it may be, you do not get to shoot someone just because they robbed you in your house.

Having known the suspect for the last 30 years I know there is so much more to this story. This is completely out of character and a very one sided story. Most of the story seems to be based off a witness who robbed people at gunpoint, if you do a little research and look at Facebook posts these thugs appear to be gang members who brag about “pulling a lick” picking up another hammer (gun) etc. these were not upstanding citizens. We don’t know all of the facts, we were not there. Don’t be quick to judge. this is a sad situation all around, all of the families and friends are suffering.

Bill –
Sounds like they weren’t “buying” weed off of Craigslist, sounds like they were robbing people selling on CL – I’ve heard of this happening – the delivery guys don’t report to the police and I’m not surprised they’re carrying weapons. The recreational store I went to is not easily robbed, so that may answer that question.

Seattle 111 – Exactly! We don’t know both sides of this. And from the article, they had tried to steal from two other dealers in Bellevue who got cold feet thinking they were going to get robbed. And why was the victim driving his friend’s car? Don’t know that I believe that it was the victim who stole the weed, perhaps it was the friend? A lot still unknown.

That’s my best friend since kindergarten who was murdered that day. Andrae Medina-Wong.First off let me say he was very wrong for robbing dude for weed( if he did). Did he deserve to be gunned down? Not at all, nobody does over some petty weed. As far as his 9mm that is registered to him and legally owned because he had a CPL, detectives said it was not fired. Aaron following them and shooting into the car with a .223 assault rifle in broad day light is insane. He had amplenty time to think about what he was doing and turn around. Also, Marijuana is legal and he was robbed, he could have called the police. Andrae and the dude he was with would be in jail able to come home one day and aaron would be at home now. Both of them made bad designs that day. But at the end of the day you can get all material things back and replace them. Life is irreplaceable, once it’s gone it’s gone. Andrae was not a gang member I know that for sure, as far as dude he was with I don’t know. My brother isn’t the murder, aaron is. When this happened I figured it was some teenage or 20’s young gang member who really didn’t know anything else. Not a 39 year old man with no criminal history. You think he would know a little better than that and have more respect for life. At the end of the day don’t take stuff from people and have respect for life. Ask your self, what if it was your: son, nephew, grandson, uncle, cousin, brother, boyfriend, friend or best friend since you were in kindergarten!!!! How would you feel? He deserved to go to jail if he was robbing people, not a casket. He was a great person. Best friend I ever had. He was always there for me when I needed it most. Now I’ll never see him again. A part of me died on October 29th, it’ll never be the same without my brother here.

I have known Dre since he was a kid. He was a good dude, and did not deserve to die like that.

With that being said, there are consequences for your actions. When you choose to go after the easy money and pull armed robberies over petty things like weed, Running into a maniac with an ak47 who doesn’t care about your life is a real possibility.

I wish Dre had never chose to do what he did and I wish the man who gunned him down over something so petty pays for murdering my friend. Let this be a lesson to everyone that life is to short to risk it all for nothing.

rcl – Recreational and medical prices are comparable right now. I can’t imagine the black market is that much cheaper than rec stores. But I suppose that the demand exists proves me wrong. Either that or somehow people don’t know it’s legal.

WS4LIFE (Aaron) has a long history of publicly posting his grievances about car thefts and theft and crime in WS in general (which has actually decreased despite his repeated assertions that the neighborhood is now dangerous). He once posted a long list of cars he’s had stolen and the losses he incurred (yet he seemingly never learned his lesson to insure his vehicles against theft). He also made mention of police not doing enough and citizens needing to do more. His comments to me looked like he harbored resentment and anger about local crime, and was in support of vigilantism.

While I don’t agree with shooting someone, I do strongly believe in defending yourself. We were not there but there are many different ways this could have gone down- what if you were robbed at gun point, you followed said robbers hoping to get your stuff back. What if that stuff was the last bit of money you had? What if you pull up and the point a gun at you- is it your fault you react first to protect yourself.
I don’t believe this other person in the car wasn’t the thief- let’s be real for a minute if you are going to steal something you have a get away driver you are not the driver. How do we know this guy didn’t point the gun at Aaron and cause all of this.

Agreed. The other guy is leaving out details for sure because it was his car. Why would he let his friend drive his car AND be the one to take the weed (possibly at gunpoint). Something doesn’t add up. He’s trying to get away with armed robbery by blaming the victim. BUT, we are all speculating. None of us know exactly what happened.

I understand the killer was your friend and he is going to spend a good amount of time in prison because of his actions so you feel the need to defend him.

My friend was the one who your friend murdered and I in no way support his actions in robbing your friend. it was wrong I wish Dre was smarter and never did it.

Come back down to earth! your friend was upset he got robbed of like $200 worth of his personal merchandise chased the thief’s down and and unloaded on them in broad daylight with an assault rifle. 4 minutes later he deleted his post on craigslist, sold his car and reported his car stolen.

As much as it hurts that your friend is going to prison for murder he did not act in self defense. it was vigilante justice and cold blooded murder.

There’s always more to a story,but its sad we will hear only 2 living sides because my friends life was taken. WRONG or RIGHT he didn’t deserve to die. How many people have made bad choices in life and they got to LEARN from them??? Even if Aaron was tired of being robbed hes NOT the one to serve justice, that what we pay law enforcement for. Took the matter into his own hands and now he will learn a LIFE lesson on a bad choice he made. One point i would like to make Aaron wasn’t a stand up citizen himself, if he was HE WOULD OF DIALED 911 thats what a”stand-up citizens” does right??. Acting like nothing happen drinking Starbucks everyday enjoying life at home. Something could be mentally wrong with him, we dont. What we do know is that a life was taken. Every action has a consequence, on BOTH parties. Paying with a life shouldnt be one

We don’t know all sides of the story yet, but I am sorry for everyone who is friends with anyone involved. There is no doubt life is worth more than a jar of weed and the guy didn’t deserve to pay for that with his life, but we don’t know if he pulled his 9mm on the shooter or what. It’s a bad situation all around, they both took some risks and one unfortunately lost his life while the other probably lost his freedom for most of the rest of his.
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What a huge waste over some weed that you can buy at the store.

I have known Andrae for many years,in no way was he a gang member or a person who would shoot senselessly into another persons vehicle in a busy intersection. Granted he was wrong for stealing but everyone of you has made mistakes in your life so don’t judge him so harshly because of this. The passenger that ran on the other hand was always a bad influence on Andrae and i never liked him, and he should be held accountable as well.Andrae was not shooting back or waiving a gun he was trying to escape, to shoot someone like a coward in cold blood over a few hundred dollars is not self defense. I hope this spineless individual is punished to the full extent of the law.

And also, at the end of the day my brother Andrae doesn’t have to suffer or stress no more. Aaron is going to spend his life in jail, with no guns and no weed. He’s going to suffer, more than Drae. Drae is free now. #JusticeForDrae #LongLivePersisian

Aaron’s biggest mistake was chasing them down, He had 5/10/15 minutes to rethink his actions. Aaron chose to gun down a man over $200 with of weed (selling it illegally), so he’ll spend a good 20/25 years in prison over that $200. That assault rifle shows his intentions, that anyone he shot had no chance for survival!

Aaron did us all a favor and will pay a high price for it. Robbing Craigslist users is not a good line of work to be in. I hope any other thieves take note and stop preying on citizens in West Seattle, and that goes for home robberies, auto theft, and package theft as well. The man was not gunned down for 200 dollars of weed, he was gunned down because he was a predator and picked the wrong victim.

Did us all a favor? Taking a son from his mother is a favor?GTFOH What Andrae did was wrong but there’s no coming back from what Aaron did. Nothing he did was OK or right. He deserves every minute he gets in prison!

(Common loon in winter plumage, photographed by Mark Wangerin) Lots of good cheer - and some community involvement too - in our highlights for the rest of today/tonight, from the WSB West Seattle Holiday Guide and Event Calendar: COCOA CRIS CRINGLE: 4-8 pm photo sessions at Easy Street Records, rais...